The tropics remain void of any recent cyclones, but there are a few areas that are being watched for development in the Atlantic and Pacific.

The Atlantic has a couple of areas that are being observed for development. One is a tropical wave in the Caribbean is producing some confused showers and storms. The other is an region of low pressure in the Central Atlantic about 700 miles southwest of the Cape Verde Islands. Neither of these areas is supposed to develop into a tropical cyclone (either a tropical depression or tropical storm) in the next couple of days. Some computer models recommend that the low in the Central Atlantic may develop early next week.

In the Eastern Pacific, there is a disorganized area of low pressure a few hundred miles south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec that is producing some spell of rains and thunderstorms. It has become better prearranged somewhat during the overnight hours; however, it is only expected to develop slowly in the next couple of days.

The term hurricane has its origin in the indigenous religions of past civilizations. The Mayan storm god was named Hunraken. A god considered evil by the Taino people of the Caribbean was called Huracan.

Hurricanes may not be considered evil but they are one of nature’s most powerful storms. Their potential for loss of life and destruction of property is tremendous. Those in hurricane-prone areas need to be prepared for hurricanes and tropical storms.

Even inland areas, well away from the coastline, can experience destructive winds, tornadoes and floods from tropical storms and hurricanes.

Hurricane Alex, which smashed over the Gulf of Mexico, last week, was the first June hurricane in the Atlantic basin for 15 years.

In the Gulf of Mexico last week a huge storm was distilling, as rapidly warming surface waters hit the critical temperature of 80.6F (27C). Powered by heat transference from the sea surface, cyclones like Hurricane Alex rampage across the coastal regions of the southern states each summer. But this year Alex, and the storms that will follow, make threats to bring extra misery, spreading the huge oil slick further and wider from the stricken Deepwater Horizon rig.

Alex, the first hurricane of the season and the first June hurricane in the Atlantic basin for 15 years – is the last thing clean-up staff need as they resist to contain the disaster.

The spinning, counterclockwise drama plays out across TV screens all summer long. Satellite images show a tropical depression forming off the coast of Africa, and the people at home invariably ask the same question as the forecasters and the scientists: Will it or won’t it become a hurricane?

This August and September, NASA is leading an aircraft campaign that will provide a sustained and unprecedented look at the inner workings of hurricane formation and intensification. The Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) experiment will take place from Aug. 15 to Sept. 30 and employ three NASA aircraft flying over the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea to try to answer some of the basic but still lingering questions about how and why hurricanes form and strengthen.
NASA has flown over hurricanes before to gather data on precipitation, winds, convection, temperature and other factors that are known cyclone ingredients. The logistical demands of doing so have only allowed for two to four hours of data collection at a time, a snapshot of a storm that could spin for days. But for the first time, scientists will fly an unmanned drone, outfitted with 3-D radar, a microwave radiometer and other instruments over tropical systems for up to 20 consecutive hours.

Most people associate twisters with tornadoes, but in fact tropical twisters come from hurricanes. Hurricanes are what scientists call “strong Tropical Cyclones”.

They are formed when large areas of the ocean become heated, and the air pressure over that area drops. This causes thunderstorms and strong surface winds. Cyclones develop over tropical or sub-tropical waters (for example, in the Atlantic off the coast of Africa, or in the Pacific).

As they travel long distances gathering energy from the ocean, they are likely to be classified as strong Tropical Cyclones. When the winds of a tropical storm reach 74 mph, then the storm is classified as a hurricane.

NASA’s GOES Project has just released a “movie” of satellite imagery showing the life and times of 2010’s only June hurricane. From birth to death, the GOES-13 satellite kept an eye on the life and times of Hurricane Alex for two weeks in June, 2010.

Hurricane Alex struggled for life for two weeks in June 2010, and the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) known as GOES-13 captured satellite images of the storm. Those satellite images were compiled into an animation by Dr. Dennis Chesters of NASA’s GOES Project at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “The animation is an example of one of the tropical-storm-in-ten which bloom into a hurricane,” Chesters said.

GOES-13 is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and images are created by NASA’s GOES Project, located at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

• Evaporation from the sea surface fuels tropical storms and hurricanes. Over relatively calm water (such as for a developing tropical depression or disturbance), in theory, an oil slick could suppress evaporation if the layer is thick enough, by not allowing contact of the water to the air.

• With less evaporation one might assume there would be less moisture available to fuel the hurricane and thus reduce its strength.

• However, except for immediately near the source, the slick is very patchy. At moderate wind speeds, such as those found in approaching tropical storms and hurricanes, a thin layer of oil such as is the case with the current slick (except in very limited areas near the well) would likely break into pools on the surface or mix as drops in the upper layers of the ocean. (The heaviest surface slicks, however, could re-coalesce at the surface after the storm passes.)

• This would allow much of the water to remain in touch with the overlying air and greatly reduce any effect the oil may have on evaporation. Therefore, the oil slick is not likely to have a significant impact on the hurricane.

After forming in the central Bahamas, Katrina came ashore in south Florida as a Category 1 hurricane where it was responsible for 11 fatalities. The storm cut diagonally across the southern part of the state from just north of Miami on the east coast, through the Everglades, to Cape Sabel on the west coast. In the process, Katrina brought heavy amounts of rain to parts of south Florida and Cuba.

Storm symbols mark the track of Katrina at 0:00 UTC (8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Savings Time (EDT) on the previous day), plus symbols are the location of Katrina at 12:00 UTC (8 a.m. EDT). The solid hurricane symbol represents a hurricane, the hollow symbol is a tropical storm, while a circle marks a tropical depression. The highest rainfall totals exceeded 12 inches of rain (dark red areas) over northwestern Cuba and the lower Florida Keys.

Amounts over the southern Florida peninsula were between 5 and 8 inches (green to yellow area). Local WSR-88D radar esimates were locally much higher just west of Miami, but the overall pattern and amounts over the lower keys were in good agreement with the MPA totals.

Some 80% of New Orleans was devastated by flooding created by the storm surge from Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

One year on, the city’s levees and floodwalls have been repaired to a standard equalling their prior condition. Temporary floodgates and pumps at the city’s four main canal entrances - which allowed storm surges from Lake Pontchartrain to overwhelm internal flood defences - are almost complete.

The US Army Corps of Engineers, which has been overseeing the work, is examining a number of longer-term options to defend the canal entrances, including a design for floating barge dams equipped with built-in “bowthruster” pumps to repel storm surges.

Despite this work, critics say not enough has yet been done to improve the city’s storm protection system.

Forecasters say the Gulf of Mexico is bracing for the second tropical depression of the season, just days after Hurricane Alex drenched the area. The tropical depression is 265 miles east-southeast of Brownsville, Texas, or 245 miles east of La Pesca, Mexico.

“The speed is moving to the northwest at about 14 mph, and currently landfall is forecasted to be over extreme northeast of Tamaulipas state in Mexico, just south of the Rio Grande river,” said meteorologist Joseph Tomaselli of the National Weather Service. “That should occur at 5 p.m. on Thursday.”

Earlier Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm warning for the Texas coast south of Baffin Bay to the Rio Grande.